Everyone also felt that this was unusual, because this neighborhood was full of ordinary residents who couldn't afford high consumption, yet the restaurant across the street had long queues. This seemed abnormal no matter how you looked at it.
"Since that's the case, let's go take a look," Erina Nakiri said in a deep voice, crossing her arms.
"I want to see what tricks they're playing."
At this moment, Erina Nakiri had regained her calm and queenly demeanor.
Subsequently, everyone walked out of the shop.
"Have you heard? This is a restaurant opened by high-level chefs here."
"A high-end restaurant? Won't it be expensive?"
"It's said that the prices are surprisingly affordable, and they use many precious ingredients. A bowl of lobster ramen only costs 1,200 yen."
"No way? Lobster ramen for so little money? A regular bowl of ramen costs 1,000, right?"
The customers waiting in line at the entrance discussed, their faces beaming with excitement.
"Lobster ramen?"
Erina Nakiri's delicate brows furrowed as she pondered.
"Are you here to scout the enemy? It's understandable, after all, there's no one in your shop," An said, walking out of the shop with a slight smile.
"Haha, that's right, we wanted to see what kind of dishes you're selling here," Yukihira Soma laughed, scratching the back of his head, not at all embarrassed.
"You're quite interesting," An said with a slight smile, pursing his lips.
"Since that's the case, please come in and see."
Satou and Erina Nakiri exchanged glances, then nodded and walked in.
At this time, the spacious restaurant was already full of customers. The five cooking areas each sold different dishes, including traditional Japanese ramen, Italian pasta, udon noodles, and cold noodles, with a rich variety.
In a large pot, lobster broth was simmering, and the restaurant was filled with a rich seafood aroma.
"They're all very expensive ingredients," Tadokoro Megumi exclaimed, having already seen large lobsters, king crabs, and many other expensive seafood items.
"The dishes must be very expensive, right?"
Yukihira Soma couldn't help but say, even more confused. With such expensive ingredients used, the selling price must be very high, so why were there so many customers?
"On the contrary, the prices of these dishes are very affordable," An said with a slight smile, then added, "The prices are basically the same as a street ramen shop."
"In that case, you must be losing money, right?"
Erina Nakiri frowned and said.
"That's right."
An nodded with a smile and said, "But we're comparing turnover, not profit, aren't we?"
"You're cheating, aren't you? Deliberately using expensive ingredients, losing money just to attract customers?"
Tadokoro Megumi said angrily.
"Financial strength is also a type of strength. I said before that WGO is not something you student rookies can resist," An said with a faint smile.
In her opinion, it was just a matter of losing a little money. To take down this area without shedding blood was simply too profitable.
"It's truly delicious, and such a large piece of lobster meat for such a cheap price, you owners are too generous."
"Yes, this is definitely the most delicious dish I've ever eaten. A Far Moon graduate's restaurant is nothing more than this, and the price is only a fraction of the latter. It's too affordable."
The customers in the restaurant tasted the dishes, their faces filled with happiness.
"Of course. Our ideal at WGO is to let everyone eat excellent dishes and eliminate unqualified shops. In the near future, many similar restaurants will be opened here, so please come and visit."
An spread his arms, a holy smile on his face, like a preaching charlatan.
"Really? That's great."
"I hope there will be more and more shops like this!"
"Yes."
The customers were all pleasantly surprised and began to look forward to it.
"Let's go," Erina Nakiri said coolly.
Afterward, everyone returned to the shop.
"Will they really sell dishes like that in the future?"
Tadokoro Megumi couldn't help but ask.
"You're too naive," Erina Nakiri said coldly.
"How can such a loss-making business be sustained? A large organization like WGO requires a lot of funds to operate. If all the shops they open in the future are like this, where will the funds come from? Do you think they are a charity organization? They are just deceiving those ignorant customers."
"But in that case, we lose the huge advantage of affordability," Satou pondered.
For the same price, one could eat high-end ingredients there, while here one could only eat ordinary ramen. The environment opposite was much better than here, any customer would make a choice.
Of course, they could also use the same method, buy high-end ingredients and sell them at a loss, but they couldn't out-compete the other side in burning money, and they didn't have that much money either.
Although Erina Nakiri's authority could easily obtain high-end ingredients, her relationship with Nagi-no-ki Touko was not deep, and she had no connection with those Ramen Craftsman at all. She only came to have more opportunities to spend time with Satou, so there was no need to provide so many ingredients for free.
Moreover, she disdained using such methods.
"If the opponent were just an ordinary chef, I could make a better dish with common ingredients than with high-grade ingredients, but the other side isn't ordinary either."
Mimasaka Subaru shook his head.
Everyone felt a bit helpless, and even Erina Nakiri fell silent.
"In any case, let's first buy some high-quality ingredients to narrow the gap, even if we can't afford high-grade ingredients."
Megishima Touko asked the Ramen Craftsman, "How much money do we have in total?"
"Based on everyone's donations, we currently have about eight million Japanese Yen."
One Ramen Craftsman said, "Of course, if we involve other regions, we could get more."
After all, everyone else also needs to live, and coming to support is fine, but when it comes to pooling money, they can only contribute a few thousand or ten thousand Yen as a gesture.
"Although I can buy ingredients at cost price through Far Moon, this money isn't enough to buy high-grade ingredients like lobster, but some high-quality seafood and meat are no problem."
Erina Nakiri said, she could only help this much.
Speaking of this, Satou's heart stirred, and he began to check the ingredient catalog to see what ingredients he could buy with eight million.
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